Five Times Link Was Homeless
by Windswift
Summary: [Ocarina of Time] Five times Link was homeless, and one time he knew exactly where he belonged.
1. one

Disclaimer: I don't own _The Legend of Zelda_

Five times Link was homeless, or, the thing that happened after I said, "You always start off at Link's house, until you get to the future, and then you always start in the Temple of Time, why is that, is that where Link lives now is that where he sleeps _is he a homeless bum?_"

I thought maybe an actual title would emerge for this fic, but apparently that did not happen and I don't have as much dignity as I thought.

_**Five Times Link Was Homeless  
**one_

Even though it's dusk now, Navi sings "Good morning!" in Link's ear when he stirs. He doesn't stir a whole lot, like proper stretching or anything, on account of how he's bigger now and the only way he fits in his bed to sleep is all scrunched up with his knees tucked to his chest. So instead he rubs his eyes and blinks at the long evening shadows stretched across the room.

"Come on, get up!" she says, tugging at the end of his hat. "Let's go see what Death Mountain looks like in the future! Something's not right about that weird cloud hanging around, I can just feel it. I wonder if it has anything to do with the sages?"

Well. He doesn't know either, and there's only one way to find out. So Link drops his legs over the edge of the bed, and kicks over his boots in the process, and bangs his elbow on the headboard as he sits up.

He rubs his elbow while he looks out the window. It's pretty dark in the forest already, with all the trees, and only getting darker every minute. It'd probably be easier investigating things on Death Mountain if it really _was_ morning. But Link's starting to get the feeling that people don't like it so much when the sun does unnatural things like pop right back up over the horizon after it's just set at the end of the day.

Probably he shouldn't play the Song of Sun so much unless it's an actual emergency.

"Hey, Link!" Navi bobs in the open doorway of the tree house, bright against the twilight shadows. "Listen, Mido's been standing outside your house all day. I wonder if he wants to talk to you about something? Oh, but he's not here now, though, I wonder where he went..."

Link's not sure what Mido would want to say to him. Except maybe to tell him off for sleeping all day, because Mido says that a _lot_ even though Link doesn't sleep in _that_ much. If it were Saria outside his house, she'd laugh and she'd tell him not to forget to wash his face after he gets up even if it _is_ nighttime. But Saria's not in Kokiri Forest now, not anymore.

Link looks over at his washbasin, which is empty, and then he grabs a bucket and heads down the ladder.

Navi zips off to the creek ahead of him. Link's boots are still tumbled-over beside his bed. In the morning the forest would be all wet with dew, but it's not morning, so the grass is dry and comfy under his bare feet as he walks. The forest fireflies, drawn out into the village clearing by the deepening shadows, cluster as thickly in the air as stars above Hyrule Field.

Link takes as long as he can to fill his bucket at the edge of the creek while Navi teases him for being a slowpoke and still asleep.

Mido's waiting there at the base of the ladder when Link comes back.

Mido's got his arms crossed and he's tapping his foot, and his mouth's pinched into a thin scowl, which is how he always looks when he wants to tell Link off for something. Which is how Mido looks most of the time Link sees him, really.

Link holds tight to the handle of his bucket.

"Look, mister," Mido says. He hunches his shoulders up, and then he starts again, "It's not that we're not grateful you had something to do with getting rid of all those scary monsters that keep popping up lately. And I know you're one of Saria's friends and all, and the forest fairies have taken a liking to you for some reason. And the Great Deku Tree Sprout must think you're okay, I guess, since you haven't turned into a Stalfos yet."

At that last bit Mido tilts his chin down and squints at Link's bare feet, like he expects them to turn to bones at any second. Link looks down too, scrunching his toes in the grass, and though they're all pale he lets out his breath when they're still as fleshy as ever.

Link forgot about that. He's never had to remember before, because he's always been a Kokiri all his life. But now the Great Deku Tree Sprout says he's a Hylian, and sure Link's never turned into a Skull Kid _before_, but he's still kind of worried. The future is full of all kinds of unpleasant surprises.

"But even so," Mido huffs, jabbing a finger at Link, "you can't stay here! Someone's already living in this house, you know." He swings his arm around so his finger's pointing to the sign instead, the one that says _Link's House_ on it.

"Can't you _read_? When Link comes back he's gonna think we gave his home away to some outsider. Well, I'm the boss around here and there's no way I'll let something like that happen!"

Mido's chin quavers. He's scared of him, Link realizes suddenly, as if Navi had whispered the idea in his ear. Right now, even though he's pretty sure Link's been helping them and fighting off the evil things in the forest, Mido still thinks he's some strange and scary adult, just like the Skull Kids do. Except, instead of shooting darts at him and vanishing into the trees, Mido's plucked up his courage to tell him off.

Even though Mido always calls him weird, and only half a person, and not a true Kokiri, and even though Link's vanished for seven years without a trace, Mido's still defending Link's house from outsiders—even if they _are_ good guys with swords—because Link's _not_ an outsider.

A part of Link is touched.

The other part of Link realizes he's just been kicked out of his own house. Er. But.

Beside him, Navi jangles indignantly in Link's ear with how loudly she wants to shout that this isn't fair.

But Mido doesn't have to worry about anything! Because as soon as Link's washed his face and gathered up his stuff, he and Navi will be heading out and they won't be borrowing Link's house anymore. It was really generous of everyone to let them stay, but they've got other places they need to go and they're kind of far away so it's probably not all that convenient to keep sleeping in this house anyway.

So, so if he sees Link while he's out in Hyrule, he'll tell him thanks for lending his house and that everyone's waiting to see him in the forest. Surely Link will turn up soon.

He grins at Mido because his face won't do anything else right now, just like when Navi first came to him, and Mido scowls back even harder than ever from trying not to look relieved. Then Link makes his way up the ladder, being careful not to let his bucket smack against the rungs and spill his water all over him.

"H-hey!" Mido cups his hands around his mouth and hollers, just as soon as Link's almost disappeared over the top rung. "You can't live here, mister! But I guess it's okay if you wanna come visit us sometimes!"

Link grins all the way to Death Mountain.


	2. two

Disclaimer: I don't own _The Legend of Zelda_

_**Five Times Link Was Homeless  
**two_

There's one good thing to be said for the future at least, and it's that Hyrule Field sure is a lot nicer now that all those stalchildren clawing up out of the ground each night are gone.

"Don't you think it's creepy, though?" says Navi. She hovers above Link's hands while he picks a stone out of Epona's hoof, because somehow it's gotten surprisingly dark a couple hours ago while Link wasn't looking. "I mean," she adds, "how they've all just _disappeared_? Hey, Link, what if something even _worse_ scared them off?"

Navi's probably right about that. But Link's not afraid, because he already knows what the something worse is. It's got to be Ganondorf, up in his tower where Hyrule Castle used to be, because he's the worst of all and probably the kind of monster that monsters are afraid of.

Link works the stone loose and flings it away into the darkness, where Epona won't get it caught in her shoe again, and sets her leg down.

He doesn't remember the dusk falling while they rode. But now that he looks up again, blinking Navi's brightness from his eyes, it's too dark to see the path across Hyrule Field anymore. It's too dark to see any landmarks, really, not even Death Mountain somewhere on the horizon, with only a half moon riding high between the clouds.

Link is a grownup now and grownups don't have bedtimes. But since they're already stopped, probably they should camp out in the field for the night.

"That's right! You need to be well-rested so you won't fall for Ganondorf's traps and you can fight the monsters and awaken the all sages. That's what Sheik's always saying, anyway," Navi adds.

Sheik says a lot of things, most of them weird and not really helpful, and as Link loosens the straps and buckles to get Epona unsaddled he wonders if Sheik is in bed for the night too. He knows that sometimes Sheik follows him and Navi around, even though he says he doesn't. So maybe Sheik's actually somewhere out in the darkness of Hyrule Field as well, settling himself down to watch them until morning.

Link grabs one of the soft brushes Malon gave him out of the saddle bags so he can brush Epona down while she grazes. Navi lights on his shoulder where he can see his strokes under her blue glow as he works.

Come to think of it, for all that Sheik tells Link not to be such a child and to get plenty of rest and remember to eat well, Link's never actually seen _Sheik_ eat or sleep or do anything like that. Sometimes Link wonders if he even does.

"Well, he has to, doesn't he?" says Navi. "Sheik's a person too! He's just... shy," she hazards.

Epona butts Link's shoulder, because he's stopped brushing while he tries to think of the word that describes what Sheik is, because it isn't _shy_ although none of the other words Link can think of taste right in his mouth either. He strokes Epona's nose and starts brushing her coat again.

Navi's probably right. But still, Link can't picture Sheik as a regular person, one who has a proper house he goes home to at night and everything. When he thinks of Sheik, he thinks of—of like Kaepora Gaebora, who probably just flies around Hyrule looking for good trees to perch in, waiting to swoop down on Link and tell him too many things at once.

Navi giggles. "Or like a skull kid, maybe!" she adds.

That's right, Sheik probably doesn't sleep at night any more than the skull kids in the forest do. He probably just sits in a tree somewhere, watching the moon cross the sky and waiting for the sunrise, plucking quiet notes on his harp.

Navi giggles again and tugs Link's earring. "Stop it, Link, we're not being nice."

Link's not trying to be mean, he's trying to be honest. If Sheik wasn't so busy following them around all the time, and covering up his face and being mysterious and saying weird stuff, then Link wouldn't think these kinds of things.

"Well," Navi says, "I think he's got to have a house. Sheik's job is to help you because you're the hero, right?"

That's what Sheik says, and he _does_ know the song of the royal family, which means he must be helping Princess Zelda too. And he looks out for Link's well-being even though Link is grown up now can take care of himself. So Link thinks that's true, at least.

"Right! But until now you haven't been the hero, because first you hadn't left the forest and then we were stuck in the Sacred Realm for seven years. So Sheik must have been doing something else until then, don't you think?"

Link chews his lip while he thinks about that. And when he's gotten the Triforce back from Ganondorf and fixed everything, he and Navi are going to go back to the forest, so he won't be the hero anymore then, either. So this must just be like... an errand that Sheik's doing for a little while, a favor for Princess Zelda, until everything's back to normal.

"So Sheik's probably a regular person after all!" says Navi. "In fact, that's probably why he's so mysterious and covers up his face in the first place, because he's got to disguise who he _really_ is. I wonder if we know him somewhere...?"

Those red eyes are really memorable, though, and Link's pretty sure he hasn't met any Sheikah besides Impa and Sheik. Still, maybe he uses some kind of Sheikah magic to make his eyes brown or blue or green or something when he's not on special missions for the royal family.

"You know, he's really good with that harp. Maybe he's a musician?" says Navi. "Or, you know how he's always quoting poetry, maybe he's a bard! I wonder if he's got a nice voice? We should ask him to sing for us sometime!"

Link grins as he sticks the brush back in the saddle bag. Sheik won't sing for them, he knows, but that doesn't mean they won't ask him. A lot.

He lays down on the undisturbed and stalchildren-free grass, and pillows his head on his arms. Navi wriggles up under his hat and nestles into his hair for the night. "I hope Sheik's still our friend after all this is over," she says.

Yeah, Link hopes that too. Sheik's weird and mysterious but he's alright. And then they'd probably even get to see his face.


	3. three

Disclaimer: I don't own _The Legend of Zelda_

The genre for this fic says "general" because they did not give me slots for "an unrepentant mixture of shenanigans and feels"

I really really like Sheik's battle-harp magic in Hyrule Warriors, so I totally retconned it for Ocarina of Time as well because um yes I do what I want

"the time that everyone was homeless together" actually

_**Five Times Link Was Homeless**  
three_

Navi says that if Link stays out in the rain for One Second Longer he's going to catch a chill, and then he'll be too sick to get out of bed, and _then_ monsters will attack because the future's a really messed-up place like that, and he'll be sorry. Link is tempted to prove her wrong—and warp to the Temple of Time and put the Master Sword back in its pedestal and crawl into his own bed in Kokiri Forest if he proves her right instead—but to be honest, his boots are as soggy as the rest of him, and he hates the way the cold rainwater sloshes around in them as he walks.

So since Impa told Link that if he ever needed a roof over his head while he's in Kakariko her house is always open to him, he squelches up the steps to her home and ducks inside.

Inside it's dark, and Link drips on Impa's rug and stumbles into a chair as he follows Navi's light to the fireplace. She bobs inside the grate and says, "Oh, good! Look, there's already wood here, Link. Go ahead and light it."

He kneels at the hearth and summons a bit of Din's Fire—well, more or less a bit, anyway, not an entire wall of flames, and somehow trying to raise only a candle's worth always drains him more than an entire inferno of magic fire—until the kindling sparks and catches and licks at the wood.

Then he pushes his wet bangs out of his face, tries to blow a drop of rainwater off the tip of his nose, and wraps his arms around his stomach while he waits for the fireplace to get warm.

Outside, the rain drums steadily on the roof.

"Hey, I wonder if Impa's left any spare clothes here!" Navi says. "I'm sure we could find something that fits you, just for tonight. Then you won't have to sit around shivering in those wet clothes."

Link wrinkles his nose. He doesn't see why he couldn't just change into one of his other tunics. Impa is really cool, and probably the most awesome grownup Link has ever met, and it's a shame _he_ couldn't grow up into a Sheikah instead of a Hylian. But she also happens to be a girl, so all of her clothes are by definition girls' clothes, and if he puts them on they'll give him cooties. Really awesome Sheikah cooties, but cooties nonetheless.

Besides, he's not shivering anyway. The rainwater's dripping from his hair and trickling down the back of his neck into his tunic, and running down his face, and into his ears, and it _tickles_, and that's making him shudder.

"Don't be such a _boy_," says Navi, and she zips off to the upper level of Impa's house. Link watches the shadows rear up and lunge across the walls as she looks around. "And your pouch is soaked through," she calls down, "so the Goron and Zora tunics are probably just as wet. And even if you change your tunic your undershirt and your leggings are still going to be all damp and cold."

Link thinks this is a sacrifice he's willing to make, as soon as the fire gets going strong.

"Hey! You should come open this wardrobe, Link. I can't do it myself!"

He shifts around on the now-wet floor in front of the fireplace to sit on his bottom, and tugs his soggy, squelchy boots off. He lines them up in front of the hearth, and then Link follows Navi up the stairs in his bare feet, one hand pressed against the wall in the dark.

When he lays a hand on the knob of the wardrobe, the door creaks open all by itself—not the wardrobe, but Impa's front door, down below. Navi dives under his sodden hat, and in the darkness she whispers, "Look out! It's an intruder!"

Link lies down on his stomach, as the door latches shut again, and crawls to the edge of the upper landing to squint into the flickering firelight below, to see if it's monsters or maybe thieves he needs to draw his sword on and defend Impa's house from. It has to be, because the storm's been pouring steadily for hours, but there hasn't been a breath of wind driving the rain.

There's enough glow from the hearth now to make out the partial outline of a dark shape near the door. It moves closer to the fireplace.

Link takes his hand off the hilt of the Master Sword, because it's just Sheik. He can see his profile in the firelight, and nobody else would be breaking into Impa's house wearing Sheikah clothes and so many unnecessary bandages covering his face.

Which Sheik is reaching up to unwrap, because they're as sodden as Link's boots.

Navi peeps from under the brim of his hat, gasping, at the same moment that Link tries to haul himself even closer and ends up bashing his shin against Impa's bed. So it's both their faults, really, that Sheik's head whips around to stare at them.

And he lowers his hands, very deliberately, back to his sides.

"Damn," whispers Navi.

Link rubs his aching shin through his wet leggings while Sheik reaches behind his back instead—his face still turned towards them, though between the cowl and the darkness Link can see what it looks like even less than usual—and unslings his harp. Cradling it in the crook of his arm, he plays a rippling chord.

"Oh, _wow!_" Navi breathes. All of a sudden Sheik's bangs aren't dark and heavy with rainwater anymore, and his clothes are dry, and even the puddles that glinted by his feet in the firelight have vanished.

There's a bit of Link that feels cheated, now that Sheik's all dry and definitely not going to take off his cowl and show his face. But mostly it's drowned out by all the other bits of Link that wish _he_ could do cool magic like that, without having to get gifts from the Great Fairies, and what else can Sheik do with that harp that he doesn't tell Link about.

Navi almost knocks Link's hat off his head as she zips out from her hiding spot, crying, "Link next, Link next! That's so cool, Sheik, do the magic on him too!"

Link tugs his hat back on and pushes himself away from the edge of the floor, and to his feet, and Sheik definitely has to do the harp magic on him because it's too neat not to, and also it would be terrible of him to just let the hero stay wet and cold and probably get sick and then it would take him even longer to awaken all the sages.

Sheik glances over to the fireplace, at Link's soaked boots and the puddles of water on the floor, and then back to Link and his grin and his dripping and clingy tunic. Then he raises his hand and strums the chord again.

There's no puff of warm air billowing against Link and fluttering his clothes or his hair, but when he inhales it smells like the wind that blows across the canyon from the Gerudo Desert, so much that he can feel the breeze on his face anyway. He turns his hands over, looking at his newly-dried gauntlets, and grins at Navi.

"Sheik, you're _amazing_," she says. "When are you going to teach Link to do that kind of thing?"

They both know that Sheik isn't, actually, not that it stops them from asking. And Sheik knows that they know—or else he's just tired of telling Link and Navi off all the time—so instead of responding he just turns his attention to mopping up the rest of the water in front of the hearth while they come back down the stairs.

"So what are you doing here anyway, Sheik?" Navi asks as Link sprawls on his stomach in front of the fire, folding his arms under his chin and wiggling around to get comfy.

Sheik sits as well, the firelight glinting in his eyes and catching the red of his irises. "The same as you," he says. "Taking shelter from the rain."

Link guesses that must be true. Usually they run into Sheik because Sheik is following them around—even though he says he's not—but if he were he would've known they were in Impa's house.

Come to think of it, Link hasn't seen Impa in a while. She hasn't exactly moved back into her old house—though she stays there from time to time, she said, after she and Princess Zelda fled the castle—but Link's used to seeing her most times that he's in Kakariko. He hopes she's well, wherever she's gone.

"Get some rest, Hero," Sheik murmurs, still staring into the fire. "I doubt this rain will let up anytime soon."

Link scrunches his face into a frown, and squeezes his eyes shut, but he's not sleepy. Sheik usually hardly ever sticks around for long—usually he just pops in out of thin air, tells Link and Navi something mysterious and poetic, plays a song, and then vanishes right before their eyes when he's done—but he doesn't look like he plans on leaving anytime soon tonight. And coming through the front door like that is weird—for Sheik.

And he almost uncovered his face.

Link's too curious to sleep now, maybe for _days_, and Sheik probably only wants him to so he and Navi won't ask lots of questions.

Well, they're on to him.

Link rolls onto his back, tucking one arm behind his head and watching the shadows flicker across the ceiling. Navi nestles down into his hair—more or less tucked under his hat, which is her usual sleeping spot—while he listens to the rain drumming on the roof and the fire crackling. The cow lows in its pen in the corner.

Link needs to see if there's any way he can get Malon to give him one of those. He definitely needs a cow for his—for Link's—house in Kokiri Forest, for when all of this is over.

Sheik says, after a moment, "What do you need a cow for?"

Link cranes his head back to look at him, but Sheik's face is still turned to the fire. He settles back down and shrugs. Who _doesn't_ want to own a cow? Except for maybe Sheik, but Sheik is weird, so that explains a lot.

"I bet the other kids would love helping take care of it," says Navi. "You know, while we're busy awakening sages. Oh, I bet Mido would let us put it in your—I mean, Link's—house if we say it's a present for him and everyone to share when Link comes back. Like a thank you for letting us stay there a while!"

Link nods. That's a good idea, and that's exactly what they'll do. Malon gave him Epona, so he'll probably have to work hard to earn a cow. But it shouldn't take him too long. And it'll probably count as training, anyway.

He's excited already just thinking about it.

There's a slight rustle of fabric as Sheik shifts his position. "When Ganondorf is defeated and the Triforce is restored to the Sacred Realm," he says, "you plan to return to the forest?"

"That's right," Navi says, and Link doesn't see why not. He only left in the first place because the Great Deku Tree asked him to help Princess Zelda and stop the evil. Once he's done that... well, everything will go back to normal, won't it, just like it used to be. And he can go back home again.

Only now he's got Navi, and they're going to stick together forever, so he really belongs with the rest of the Kokiri and everything. It'll be perfect.

Of course, he'll have to leave the forest again sometimes. Link's made a lot of new friends out in Hyrule—like Sheik—so he'll have to visit them plenty. Luckily it's not as bad outside the forest as the Great Deku Tree always warned the Kokiri it was.

"I wonder if that was because of that war we heard about, don't you think?" says Navi. "I bet it'll be okay to leave the forest now, though, after we get rid of nasty Ganondorf." She gasps, and Link feels her tug a little at his hair. "Saria could come with us! I bet it would be okay if we asked the Great Deku Tree Sprout first! It'll be great!"

Link grins, wide enough to split his face. He's looking forward to that, even more than the cow. He's _missed_ Saria. He can still talk to her while she's in the Sacred Realm, of course, but it's not the same. Even with Navi it's still kind of lonely exploring Hyrule, just the two of them.

Sheik chuckles quietly. "That sounds nice," he murmurs. "It's unfortunate the Goddesses called you to give up that life for seven years."

Link shrugs. It's been weird, and the future _is_ pretty awful and creepy, but it hasn't been all bad. And at least he and Navi got to sleep through most of it. Sheik probably had to be awake all those seven years while Ganondorf was taking over Hyrule and messing things up.

Sheik doesn't say anything, until he says, "Don't you think it's time you went to sleep again, Hero?"

Link sighs, and then he rolls on his side and curls up, facing Sheik, his eyes closed. His eyes mostly closed. His eyes closed enough that maybe Sheik will think he's asleep if he breathes deeply, and won't notice him peeking from beneath his eyelashes to see if Sheik will sleep too. Link's never caught him at it before.

Link doesn't notice when he falls asleep for real, but the last he sees of Sheik he's still staring into the fire, silent and awake.


	4. four

Disclaimer: I don't own _The Legend of Zelda_

_**Five Times Link was Homeless**_

_four_

Malon sets the bread knife down and reaches over to pluck a piece of hay from Link's hair, flicking the tip of his ear with it. "You missed one," she says as she shoots him a wink.

Ingo snorts, across the table, and Link ruffles his hands through his hair to shake out any other bits of chaff still clinging there, just in case Malon decides to drop the next bit of scratchy hay she finds down the collar of his undershirt instead. She would, probably, and Navi's not here to warn him when her hand's sneaking to do it.

Navi's fast asleep in Link's hat, still. He put it upstairs, on Malon's pillow, so all the breakfast sounds in the snug farmhouse kitchen wouldn't wake her. She probably stayed up all night, practically, keeping watch for him.

He'll sneak a toast soldier into his pocket for later, in case she wants the crumbs.

There's three chairs around the table at the ranch: Malon's, Ingo's—which used to be Malon's mom's, ages ago before they had to hire Ingo full-time as a ranch hand—and Talon's. Talon's already loaded up the cart and left on morning milk delivery to Kakariko Village, though, so Link gets to take his chair instead of having to drag a short milking stool in from the barn.

Even so, Link's legs are long in the future, and even on a proper chair his feet don't dangle over the floor and he can't kick them while he waits. Instead he hooks the heels of his boots over the rung while he watches Ingo pour fresh milk into mugs—one for Malon, one for himself, and, after catching Malon's eye despite his best efforts, one he thumps down in front of Link.

Malon arranges strips of toast on plates, next to boiled eggs and hunks of cheese and handfuls of blackberries from the brambles that grow behind the stables. Then she passes the plates across the table, setting them down beside their mugs.

Well, beside all the mugs except for Link's. His mug is already in his two hands, so she has to put his plate next to the place where his milk _used_ to be.

She slides the milk pitcher along after, hand on her hip, though Link doesn't notice right away because he's got his mug tipped all the way back to chug the last of it.

"I swear," she says, shaking her head and sitting down, "_you_, fairy boy, are worse than the cats."

Link licks the milk from all along his upper lip, then prods at his boiled egg with his spoon. Malon _says_ that like it's a bad thing, but. He doesn't see how it can be. He _likes_ the ranch cats. He'd take one—or three, or—along with him if only he could figure out how to stop them always climbing out of Epona's saddle bags.

And they're soft. And sometimes they'll come over and rub up against his legs and let him scratch their chins. And once—when Link left his muddy boots out on the doorstep—they even left him a dead mouse in his right boot as a present.

He found the little furry body in there when he went to leave, when he tried to tug his boot on and his toes wouldn't fit in properly. Small dead things like that are gross, of course. And therefore very cool, and Link was touched and impressed and pretty disappointed when Navi wouldn't let him stick it in his pouch to show everyone back home in the forest. Probably even Mido would've liked it.

Malon grins and dips a strip of toast in the yolk of her own egg. "Bad as the cats. One day you're hanging about the ranch like you own the place," she says, pausing to swallow a bite, "and then the next you've just up and disappeared. And no one sees a whisker of you for seven long years, until we all figure you surely must've kicked it. But here you keep turning up out of the blue, always just in time for a good meal!

"Not," she adds, "that I'm complaining, mind you. But what _were_ you doing sleeping in our barn, of all places?"

Link pushes a blackberry across his plate with his spoon and scrunches an entire piece of toast into his mouth. He wasn't _sleeping_ in the barn, exactly. Well. He didn't start _out_ sleeping in the barn. He didn't mean to—

They were crossing Hyrule Field, yesterday, and Navi spotted the track that branches off to Lon Lon Ranch. And so of course they thought, how about they stop and say hello to their friends?

Link meant to stop in at the house first. He did. But the sun was setting, so instead of leaving Epona out in the pasture he put her up in the stables. And then, as he walked back past the barn, he heard it.

The faint, intermittent scritching of a spider.

Well, he couldn't just _leave_ it there in the barn with the cows, it'd probably upset them. Besides, he made a promise to squish a hundred of those gross skulltula things, and he'll never get them at this rate if he lets them all creep away in the dark.

So he pulled out his sword and he and Navi checked in each stall, and looked in all the milk pails, and peeked inside every heavy crate, and listened at each nook and cranny and corner, and dug through every pile of hay.

Only somewhere along the line Link's burrowing through the hay must have turned into curling up in it and resting his eyes instead, because that was how Malon found him when she came in to do the morning's milking—half-buried in a nest of hay, Navi dozing in his hat, and not a spider's scratching to be heard anywhere.

And then she put a bucket in his hands and told him to start at the other end of the barn and meet her in the middle.

They didn't, not quite, because Malon's a lot faster milker than he is even when his chin's not nodding and he's not still got sleep in his eyes. But he's practicing.

Ingo snorts again, his mouth full of egg and toast. He takes a swig of his milk and glowers at Link as he says, "You shouldn't encourage him, miss. We don't need any _freeloaders_ hanging about this ranch."

"Oh, shush, you," says Malon, leaning over to swat his arm with a grin. "He's worked for his breakfast, same as the rest of us. And he did a good job with gathering the eggs, too, because I know you'll have gone back and double-checked his handiwork," she teases. "You could never stand sloppiness."

Ingo harrumphs like a deku scrub that's been hit with its own seed, but he goes back to his breakfast without scowling at Link again.

"Besides," Malon says, "we can afford to feed a good mouser around here now and again. Especially one who'll help with the mucking out before he goes, hm?"

Link's cheeks are full of blackberries, so he just grins back at her and nods. Navi's sleeping anyway, so he's got plenty of time to help out with chores before they have to leave. He hurries to clean up his plate and drain the last bit of milk from his mug.

"Good!" she says. Malon taps the back of his knuckles with her spoon before he gets up and adds, "Mind you come back to the house before you go, alright? I'll pack you a lunch. And stop sleeping in the barn, for goodness' sake. I'll make you up a bed next time, as long as you don't make me wait seven years and forget. Deal?"

Link sticks his hand out and hooks his pinky around hers to swear it. He and Navi have too many great friends to ever vanish like that again.


	5. five

Disclaimer: I don't own _The Legend of Zelda_

Two and a half years later I've finally finished this, at last, a six-part fic, all because I couldn't figure out how to write a very short very dumb ficlet in which Link bums in the Temple of Time when he's an adult because he's homeless and therefore he carves a dinosaur into the wall of the Master Sword room to make it match his house much to Navi's horror.

The dinosaur finally appears in this part.

_**Five Times Link Was Homeless**  
five_

Sheik says that Link can't sleep in dungeons, which shows how much Sheik knows.

Sheik even has an entire lecture prepared about this. Link is _thrilled_. Because, of course, what Sheik knows is wrong and a lie and.

Sheik is always teaching Link things. He's always moving Link's feet around so his stance with the Master Sword is _more steady_, or tilting the angle of his bow so he _wastes fewer arrows_, or changing the notes of Link's songs on the ocarina to be _correct_ and less fun, or telling him why _you can't just live off bottles of red potion_ and all the best places to get free meals outside the forest, and _absolutely nothing at all_ about how to sneak up behind people out of nowhere without making a single noise.

But Link has never, _ever_ got to be _Sheik's_ teacher before. He's so excited. He didn't realize there were things Sheik _didn't_ know; it's almost like Sheik is a real person just like everybody else. And _Link_, this time, is the expert.

Because sleeping in dungeons is easy-peasy and Link naps in them all the time. The trick, you see, is to pick a room with a lock and a key. All you have to do is, first you get rid of all the monsters, and then you lock yourself in and lock all the other monsters _out_, of course. And if you sleep with your back against the corner (it's almost kind of comfy if you have a spare tunic to tuck behind your head) then nothing can sneak up on you, right, and you even get Navi to keep watch while you sleep for _extra_ security as long as she's not too tired herself.

It's perfect. And then you don't even have to leave the dungeon and lose your place and have to start exploring all over again and waste all that time when you could be saving sages.

Sheik's eyes go squinty above the cowl that hides his face. "That's what Farore's Wind is for," he says. "I know you've received it. Then use the ocarina to warp yourself to someplace actually safe to sleep, Hero."

Also, Sheik says, that wasn't what he meant. He meant Link isn't _allowed_ to sleep in dungeons anymore.

–

Fado says that Link can't take anything out of the forest. She only says this when Link is a grown-up, which doesn't _seem_ right, because Link is _always_ Link no matter what size and also the Great Deku Tree said Link could take things out of the forest, like himself and Navi and his clothes and some sticks and deku seeds and Saria's ocarina and the Kokiri sword and some cool-looking leaves and well. A lot of things.

Still. When Link is tall he doesn't take anything out of the forest with him-at least on purpose, when he remembers-because Fado is scary.

It's just a shame. Because the Sacred Realm's magic time-travel is kind of weird. Link doesn't get how it works, and he and Navi have stopped trying to figure it out because it just gives them headaches. Not as bad as the time when they asked Sheik to explain the rules, but still pretty terrible. But what Link has learned is, forest fireflies can't travel through seven years of time with the Master Sword like Link can.

Well, actually, they do. Which is the problem.

So thanks to Fado, Link has to go to Lake Hylia just after sunset instead.

He squelches around the dark, twilight edges of the lake, where the grass is tall and marshy and reedy, and tries not to actually step _into_ the lake. Again. Last time he sat down to empty out his boots, his butt got wet.

A pair of Zora guards swim by on patrol while Link is wrestling with the lid of his bottle. They stop and salute, treading water, to ask Link how Princess Ruto is faring.

Saria says that everyone is doing well in the Sacred Realm. Time doesn't pass the same way there, she says. Old Sage Rauru is in particularly good spirits, because he'd brought a deck of cards with him but he was getting awfully sick of playing solitaire, and you really need a handful of people to play a good round of go fish. Plus between the lot of them so far the sages have finally managed to accumulate enough odds and ends and pocket fluff to play games like chess and checkers.

And in between rounds, of course, Ruto is busy planning her royal wedding to Link.

_Marriage_ isn't a thing in the Kokiri Forest. Neither Link nor Navi knew what an 'engagement' was before Ruto said it, and the Great Deku Tree Sprout wasn't much help either when Link asked later. But Ruto told him a wedding is a big party with music and food and all his friends can be invited, so this sounds like a great idea to Link. He can't wait.

The Zora guards laugh, and salute again as they thank Link for the update, and then there's nothing but their ripples and dusk and fireflies.

Link wonders where Princess Zelda is, and if she's well. He wonders if she stuck a pack of cards in her pocket before they had to flee the castle, but she's really smart so Link figures she probably did. He wonders if, just as soon as he's fixed things and got rid of Ganondorf, she'll come back to Hyrule in time to come to his marriage to Ruto, and if maybe sometime after that _she'll_ want to have a royal wedding with Link too. He bets Princess Zelda throws really fun parties.

Lake Hylia fireflies aren't used to fairies, not like the forest ones are. They keep clustering thickly around Navi as she weaves beside Link.

Pretty soon he's got a whole bottle-full tucked back into his pouch, and he pulls out his ocarina instead.

–

Navi says that Link can't carve a dinosaur on the wall of the Temple of Time.

...she might be right.

Link's not going to admit that to her, though.

The fact is that Link is a great artist. And he draws amazing dinosaurs. He scratched one into this side of his tree house back in the forest and Saria really liked it. Mido said it looked dumb and stupid dodongos don't even look like that anyway, which proves _even more_ how studpenous Link's art is, because Navi always says Mido is a jealous little jerk.

But the problem is the Master Sword.

The Master Sword is a great sword. It might even be the best ever, although personally Link is holding out for something a little more fancy. It's evil's bane, it lets him travel through time, it can cut through all kinds of monsters…

But when he gouges the tip of the blade at the temple's walls, all he gets are a lot of sparks and an awful squealing, scraping noise. Not even a _wobbly_ dinosaur, which it would be, since the Master Sword is way too long for drawing with.

He thought the Kokiri sword might work better. Except it's still a sword in Link's grown-up hand, just a tiny short one with an even shorter handle. He _thought_ it was going to be like a dagger.

Not that Sheik will let him borrow one of those. Or a throwing knife, either.

Link got really excited when he heard about the Giant's Knife. He got really disappointed after he bought it.

Navi says too bad, it serves Link right for trying to scratch graffiti all over an ancient and sacred temple. Especially the inner sanctum.

But Navi's wrong, because it's not graffiti. It's just that the temple is so boring. And it's so…

Link misses the forest, and the village with everyone in it, and his house with his dinosaur carving. The dinosaur would be so cool, Link knows, that Sheik would definitely want to see it when Link invited him. And he'd be so impressed he'd actually spend the night instead of vanishing right when they're in the middle of talking to him.

That's all.

Navi snuggles up against Link's cheek. "Look, Link…" she says. "Listen! Why don't you put the Master Sword back in the pedestal and we'll go into town to buy some chalk. Right?"

–

Saria says _Goodnight, Link_.

He wishes she wouldn't go.

"I'm sorry!" she says. She sounds like she's talking in his ear, though her voice is kind of funny, probably because she's really talking in his mind from the Sacred Realm. "You got so quiet I thought you fell asleep."

Every time before Link goes to bed, he takes Saria's ocarina out of his pouch. Then he gets as comfy as he can, and he plays her special song, and he tells her all about his day. Because she's his best, best friend.

Navi is Link's best friend too, of course, and so is Princess Zelda even though he hasn't played with her in months and also seven years, and Malon too, and the Gorons, and Sheik even though he doesn't _act_ like he knows they're best friends, and...

But Link really, really, really misses Saria the most.

"I guess you still haven't heard anything about Princess Zelda," Saria is saying. "How is the search for the next sage going?"

Link lays out his Goron tunic and his Zora tunic on the Temple of Time's stone floor. The temple is a pretty okay place to sleep. He can warp right there from anywhere in Hyrule, thanks to the Prelude of Light. And the temple's far too sacred for the ReDeads that prowl the Castle Town ruins to come anywhere near.

Besides, he slept here for seven years when he pulled the Master Sword out, sort of. So a few more weeks-it can't be more than that, after all, can it?-will be fine.

"-seems to be a strange energy, maybe you and Navi should check in the-"

Link pillows his head on his arm and holds Saria's ocarina tight in one hand. He turns his head to look at the dinosaur (and himself, with a sword and shield, and Navi) chalked on the wall, then up to the dusky corners of the ceiling where the fireflies he set loose gather to bob and blink. Then he closes his eyes to concentrate on the moaning of the ReDeads outside that sounds nothing at all like the wind in the forest trees.

But Link can pretend really well.

_Link,_ Saria whispers in his ear, _are you still awake?_


	6. and one

Disclaimer: I don't own _The Legend of Zelda_

_**Five Times Link Was Homeless  
**(and one time Link knew exactly where he belonged)_

"Let's take your calligraphy practice out to the courtyard today, Princess," Impa says.

Zelda looks at her, with Impa's head turned to look out the window and her arms crossed over her chest. That's not Impa's _get down and stay out of sight of the windows, I think this is an assassination attempt_ voice, so she drops her pen and scrambles out of her desk to look too.

She leans her arms on the windowsill and presses her face against the glass. "Why?" she asks. There's an early winter chill in the air this morning, and the cold glass fogs up at her words. She scoots over on her right elbow so she can see again.

Impa turns away to gather up Zelda's pens and inks.

Zelda stretches up on her tiptoes, holding her breath. Outside the castle grounds look the same as always—green lawns, green yews, and the guards on their rounds. She squints harder.

Impa says, "Come along, Princess."

As she trudges down the halls behind her, books squeezed against her chest, Zelda frowns at Impa's back. It's not that Zelda doesn't want to sit in the courtyard, because she loves lessons outside, and the schoolroom is okay but it gets stuffy day-in and day-out. But whatever Impa saw out the window Zelda didn't spot, and Impa's not telling her.

It's not fair.

Impa sets her things on the stone steps, and Zelda plops down beside them with much huffing and ruffling of skirts. Impa doesn't take the hint. So she opens her workbook on her knees, unscrews the cap from the ink bottle, checks her pen—

—and looks up to see the boy in green slipping around the courtyard's arched entryway.

"Link!" Zelda shoves the calligraphy book off her lap and jumps up to meet him, all her crossness with Impa tossed aside too. "You're back! Did you find your friend?"

Link grins at her, and waves at Impa, and he looks just like Zelda remembers him before he left months ago, though maybe a little more scabby about the knees. But he still doesn't look like the boy from Zelda's dreams, the boy she saw with the blue fairy at his side.

Her own grin falters as he shakes his head.

He didn't find Navi. After Link told Zelda he was leaving on a journey he searched all the places he and Navi traveled together, and every inch of the forest, and he asked Saria and the other fairies and even Mido. He even tried asking the Great Deku Tree Sprout if he knew where Navi went, since now that Ganondorf never got to place his curse on the forest he's been growing, but the Great Deku Tree Sprout couldn't help Link either.

Link's a Hylian boy without a fairy again.

Zelda squeezes Link's hand in her ink-smudged ones. She never met Navi in this life. But there are things, sometimes, in Zelda's dreams, ever since she met Link. She's not sure if they're dreams her mind has made up, from Link's stories of the future gone terribly wrong, or if they're her own memories from the life she never lived—but the one thing she's certain of is, Navi's a precious friend and very important to Link.

"Well, you can't give up," she says. "I just know you'll see her again. You have to, after everything you've been through."

Link nods, and Impa crouches down beside them on the grass. "Where will you look next?" she asks. "Do you think you'll leave Hyrule and try one of the neighboring kingdoms?"

Zelda tugs Link's hand and says, "I'll write you an official letter of protection from the Kingdom of Hyrule to give you safe passage! I've never gotten to do one before, but I'll use my fanciest writing and a real royal seal, don't worry."

Link slips his hand out of Zelda's. That's sort of why he stopped by, although not really for the letter, but the letter actually sounds like a really great idea and if Zelda wants to do that for him he'll take it gratefully. But Zelda lent him her ocarina, to keep it out of Ganondorf's reach and to help Link on his travels. And it's been more useful than Link can say, and he's grateful, but it's a royal heirloom and he needs to return it to her now because he's not looking for Navi anymore.

"What?" Zelda says, as Link pulls the Ocarina of Time out of his pouch and presses it into her hands. It's cold against her fingers, not like Link's hand.

He's not giving up, not really. It's not like Link won't keep an eye out for Navi until he finds her again, because he will. And it's also not that he won't leave Hyrule, because he thinks he might. But he's realized...

Link doesn't want to be thirty-five, one day, and for Navi to come back and be bursting to tell Link all of the adventures she's had while she was away, and when she asks what _he's_ been up to in the meantime all he can say is, he waited for her.

He wants to tell Navi about all his adventures too, about the strange places he's seen, and the people he met there, and all the friends he made, and the weird things he ate that he probably shouldn't have eaten. He wants to make memories to laugh over and share with her, and with all the friends he's already got, in the forest and scattered throughout Hyrule.

And he doesn't think he can do that, not if he stays in the Kokiri Forest that isn't his home anymore and waits for Navi to come back.

Impa ruffles his hair, half her mouth turned up into a smile. "May the Goddesses smile on you," she says. "I think you'll be fine, Link."

Link tugs his hat back on straight and clutches his hands over his hair, though he can't help grinning back at Impa, and a part of Zelda squeezes tight and doesn't want to write Link that letter anymore, wants to tell him he has to come back again to get it.

So she announces, "Okay, Link, I'm going to write you that letter of protection right now!" and whirls away to set the ocarina down and fetch her best paper.

Link sits down on the steps beside her to watch, and wraps his arms around his knees. He thinks he'll leave today, after he gives back his house to the Kokiri. He's not sure where he's going yet, or how long. But he thinks, in between visiting all these new places he's going to see, he wants to come back to visit Hyrule, too.

And maybe whenever he's in Hyrule he can drop by Castle Town, and sneak into the palace gardens, and share all his stories with Zelda, too.

If she wants to hear them.

Zelda signs her name at the bottom of the letter with a handful of flourishes, and then adds a few more for good measure. "I have to go to my father's office to get the royal seal," she says, and stands up. "I'll be right back.

"And," she adds, "of _course_ I'd like that."

Link grins, and it's not for many years later that Zelda realizes that the too-full feeling in her chest is one of many places he's burrowed in and made himself a home.


End file.
